Oftentimes employers commit certain hiring mistakes that cost them a lot of time and money. Turning the mistakes around and learning the right way to hire can save both time and money. You can do that by correcting some of the most common hiring errors.
Poor interviewing skills
No one is born knowing how to interview. It takes some time to learn how to do it right. The best way to conduct an interview is to ask behavioral questions. In behavioral questions, you ask how a job candidate handled situations in the past, rather than just asking general questions. In other words, behavioral questions include “Tell me about a time you faced a challenge at work. How did you handle it” and “What do you do if you disagree with a coworker?”
The open-ended format and reference to past experiences will allow you to learn more about them than general yes or no questions. Plus, past performance really is the best way to find out how they’ll work for you.
Not hiring for fit
Never be swayed by the fact that the person has exactly the right skills that you ignore a lack of fit. Fit is a very high predictor of whether someone will do well in a position. In fact, many people think fit is more important than skills. An employee who doesn’t fit can be like a marcher who just can’t get in step.
So if your entire team is crazy for football and crunches numbers, don’t hire a whiz at number crunching if it looks like the whiz has never even heard of Green Bay (or the Dallas Cowboys, or whatever team of choice your office goes for). You can train for skills. But fit has to be there.
Failure to train
Don’t throw people in expecting them to hit the ground running. Some training is necessary. Training provides the basics that keeps everybody on the same page. It provides the nuts and bolts of how to do the job. Ideally, it will also let new employees know relative importance of tasks and how to approach the job as well.
Sometimes, training can reinvent an employee from a struggling member of the team to a star, or move someone from a middle-of-the-road performer to someone you’d never want to be without. Set up training for targeted areas for every report you have. It will pay off.
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